Robert A.J. MacDonald
Dr. Robert (Bob) A.J. McDonald (1944–2019) died in Vancou-ver of complications from a stroke on 19 June 2019.
Born in Brandon, Manitoba, Bob received his BA and MA from the University of Manitoba and entered the PhD program at the University of British Columbia in 1968. At UBC he studied with Margaret Prang, a leading scholar of British Columbia. Bob taught history at the University of Victoria and Simon Fraser Univer-sity before joining the UBC History Department as an Assistant Profes-sor in 1978. In over five decades as a professor Bob inspired countless
undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students, and built extensive scholarly and personal connections across the city, province, and country.
Bob was deeply committed to the history of British Columbia and was a fierce and lifelong advocate of regional history. Region, class, and politics – and the question of what made British Colum-bia historically unique - were the central questions that defined his research. His first book, Making Vancouver: Class, Status, and Social Boundaries, 1883–1913, was rooted in the emerging social, labour, and urban history of the 1970s and was concerned with how working people and elites understood their class status and lived their everyday lives. While Bob remained intellectually open to new historical methods, he was committed to extensive pri-mary research that prioritized the material conditions of people’s lived experience. He published widely on topics including the modernization of the civil service, the development of left popu-lism, modern liberapopu-lism, family history, and urban development. His final book, “A Long Way to Paradise”: British Columbia Pro-vincial Politics, 1870s–1970s was completed in spring 2019 and is the culmination of Bob’s quest to understand the complex history of British Columbia political culture. The book explores British Columbia’s political and economic development in the context of modern liberalism, populism, and modernity through shifts in the province’s political history – the election of the reformist Liberal Party in 1916; the Liberal-Conservative coalition politics of the 1930s and 1940s that kept the Co-operative Common-wealth Federation from political power; the 1952 election that brought the Social Credit Party to power on a widely supported platform of “conservative populism” and rapid economic growth. The book ends on the eve of the 1972 provincial election as rising unemployment, environmental activism, and the rise of younger social movements led to the election of an NDP government. Bob spent his scholarly life contributing to a rich historiography on British Columbia but was equally devoted to building,
main-taining, and supporting the public institutions and communities that supported the field. Bob understood that the institutional structures that shaped the academy could only thrive with ded-ication, hard work, and intellectual and material support. He supported these institutions with his time and his energy, not just because they were necessary for the future of the historical profession, but also because they were a way to build connec-tions and relaconnec-tionships between people. He was a long-time supporter of the BC Studies Conference, which began in 1979 and continues to meet every second year. He attended the first Qualicum History conference which began in 1975 and meets yearly in Parksville to this day. He loved to introduce students and junior colleagues to these communities, and he attended conference sessions at BC Studies, Qualicum, and the Canadian Historical Association each year with enthusiasm and delight. His first peer-reviewed publication was in the interdisciplinary journal BC Studies (co-founded by Margaret Prang in 1968), and he took on the position of editor between 2002 and 2008. Over the twenty-six issues published during his time as editor, the journal reflected Bob’s belief in the importance of regional history and published a wide range of topics on Indigenous cul-tures and geography, electoral reform, religion and gender, and environmental politics.
Bob was a scholar and teacher who was deeply committed to the education of his students, the development of public history, and to the civic institutions that preserved historical documents and memory. His love of history and genuine dedication to the intellectual development of his students inspired many to pur-sue graduate studies in history, and he won the UBC Killam Teaching Prize in 2000. As Vancouver Historical Society presi-dent (2013-2015) and programming director (2016-2019), Bob brought his enormous passion and energy to making the region’s history exciting and accessible to a broad public. He was a pas-sionate advocate of the City of Vancouver Archives, where he was a long-time member of the Advisory Committee and where he also served as chair. Bob was awarded the Canadian Histori-cal Association’s BC Clio Prize for lifetime achievement in 2011 in honour of his long career of scholarship, teaching, and service. All of Bob’s scholarly accomplishments are part of his legacy as a professor and academic. But they do not fully reflect the reach of his influence, nor can they sum up the fullness of his life. A hint of that fullness came the day after Bob was suddenly admitted to Vancouver General Hospital in June 2019. So many family members, friends, colleagues, and students came to see him that the line-ups extended out of the door and down the hallway. Bob built a deep web of devoted friendships across the city, the province, and the country. He was cherished by his friends and colleagues for his sharp and self-deprecating sense of humour, his love of political debate, and his seemingly endless knowledge of every provincial and federal election since the 1960s. At heart,
Bob was a storyteller. Every drive across the city and every con-ference road trip was accompanied by stories about the people who had lived and worked there, and by a passionate explana-tion as to why that place told us something important about the history of the region. His love of political argument and debate was as expansive as his historical knowledge. He loved to debate everything political: the corporate failings of BC Ferries, the state of the historical profession, the pitfalls of political partisan-ship, the downfall of prime ministers and political parties. For friends, students, and colleagues, debating with Bob was invigorating and often hilarious, an invitation to be a part of his world and community, and a reflection of his profound delight in engaging with his friends’ ideas. Argument was his way of build-ing an open table, and his table was everywhere: the office, car, pub, living-room, classroom, coffee shop, and cottage. Underly-ing his desire to talk and debate was a set of social values based on a profound belief that we should work together to improve the common good. He was a lifelong NDP supporter who cared deeply about the historical and contemporary meaning of social democracy and the left. Bob lived the values he espoused: he was unfailingly generous with his time, his feedback and encour-agement, his knowledge and expertise, his mentorship, and his friendship. He celebrated the personal and professional accom-plishments and successes of his friends, students, and colleagues. He always made room at the table for more people.
Bob’s commitment to the larger social good led him to retire-ment in 2012 even though it was no longer mandatory. Bob had enjoyed the privilege of a permanent and tenured job in Canadian history and was committed to keeping the door open for younger scholars. But for Bob, retirement brought an end only to the routine of classroom preparation and grading. He still showed up to work in his UBC office every day without fail, where he continued to participate in the life of the university, mentor junior colleagues and students, and painstakingly com-plete what would be his last book.
As many of his long-time friends remarked at his memorial ser-vice in Vancouver in July, Bob hated a long good-bye. He was known for quickly and quietly slipping away from events and gatherings with a short wave of the hand. He slipped out of this life with as little warning and almost as quickly. The extraordi-nary number of people who attended his memorial service in July stands in testament to the relationships and communities he built, and the love he brought to the lives of his family, friends, students, and colleagues.
With thanks to Michael Dawson, Heather Gordon, Michael Kluckner, the Lovatt family, Bradley Miller, Mercedes Peters, Paige Raibmon, and Andrea Smith.
Lara Campbell, Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Stud-ies, Simon Fraser University
Bruce W. Hodgins (1931- 2019) Historian and Master Canoeist
An appreciation by James Cullingham I first met Bruce W. Hodgins in a tipi at Camp Wanapitei on Lake Temagami some 400 kilometres north of Toronto. It was 1973. I was an undergraduate student at Trent University attending the first autumnal Canadian Studies gathering of students and profes-sors at that camp located at Sandy Inlet. The Trent Temagami
Week-end continues to this day. Many of us attWeek-ending next month will have Bruce in our hearts and minds.
That evening I listened intently as Bruce, the weekend’s conve-nor John Wadland, now Trent University professor emeritus of Canadian Studies, and others talked about the history of Temag-ami, Indigenous rights and environmental issues.
That began my own dialogue and relationship with Bruce that continued until his death on Thursday August 8 in Nogojiwan-ong (Peterborough). Bruce W. Hodgins was my professor, my employer, my mentor and, for several decades, my dear friend. In 1979-1980, Bruce supervised my major research paper as an Honours student in what was then the department of Native Studies (now the Chanie Wenjack School for Indigenous Stud-ies) at Trent. My research concerned the struggle for justice of the Teme-Augama Anishinabai, a dispute with the province of Ontario and the federal government that would end up at the Supreme Court of Canada. Bruce was also my employer from 1977 – 1980 when I led canoe trips for Wanapitei. The camp featured, as it does to this day, an extraordinarily ambitious wil-derness canoeing programme.
In addition to his charged academic life, Bruce led that operation for decades. My final trip as a leader under Bruce’s stewardship was down the Winisk River to Hudson’s Bay. Bruce Hodgins had a rare ability to suss out the capacity of young people and to chal-lenge them to chalchal-lenge themselves.
Bruce was an activist, author, master canoeist and scholar. He made significant contributions to Canadian history as the biographer of Ontario’s first Premier John Sandfield Macdon-ald and the French-Canadian missionary and colonist Charles Paradis who founded a farm on what became the site of Camp Wanapitei.
enous issues came to the fore in his own backyard, he stood up and spoke out. He was among those who supported the Teme-Augama Anishinabai in defence of their lands against rapacious Ontario logging procedures in the 1980s.
His efforts inspired respect from his Indigenous neighbours on Lake Temagami. Former Chief Gary Potts wrote to me after learning of Bruce’s death, “Bruce-Bruce-Bruce, He persisted and persisted to get us all in the same room and the same table – And when Bruce was not able to influence the Ontario Government to stop building the Red Squirrel Road – Pine Torch Road exten-sion – he turned Camp Wanapitei over to the Teme-Augama Anishinabai for base camp, – stood with us and was arrested with us – Carol was at his side!”
Bruce told me that seeing the Teme-Augama Anishinabai flag flying outside the Wanapitei dining hall during the blockade was his Wanapitei proudest moment.
I saw Bruce last in the final days of July at Wanapitei. He was ailing.
The dementia that afflicted his superb mind over the past few years may have effaced his memory, but he was still smiling. I recall getting up from the chair beside his after one of our lake-side visits. He cocked his head slightly, grinned and waved his hand at me from the side. I could have sworn he recognized me emotionally, if not intellectually.
Farewell my friend. I can’t think of another person I’ve had the honour to know who gave so much to so many. Grazie mille. James Cullingham is a documentary filmmaker, historian and journalist with Tamarack Productions. He’ll be teaching a course at the Chanie Wenjack Scool for Indigenous Studies at Trent Uni-versity this fall.
First published on ActiveHistory August 21, 2019. At Trent University, he researched and taught about the nature
of federalism, comparative Canadian and Australian history and the Canadian north.
After retirement he was named Trent University Professor Emeritus of History. His rich list of publications also includes works about Temagami, canoe travel and nastawagan, Indige-nous trails, some of which he knew intimately as he portaged his canoe on trips all over the Temagami region, northern Ontario, Québec and the northern territories. John Wadland told me what marked Bruce as an authority on the north was the first-hand knowledge of many, many key locations that he garnered as a wilderness canoeist on trips led with his wife Carol.
Bruce was also politically minded. He once ran unsuccessfully for the New Democratic Party in Peterborough’s federal riding. He was an ever trenchant, and always amusing, observer of the Canadian political scene. During my time as a political jour-nalist at CBC Radio, I always wanted to hear his impressions of electoral campaigns and Canadian political leaders. He had an unwavering ability to assess things as they actually were, not as he hoped they might be.
I believe it was his forward thinking embrace of Indigenous rights as a non-Indigenous intellectual that truly distinguished him.
He observed, taught and commented frequently on issues such as the Nisga’a territorial dispute, the efforts of the James Bay Cree to protect their territory from hydro development and the even-tual entrenchment of existing Aboriginal and Treaty rights in the Canadian constitution.
But Bruce Hodgins was no arm chair academic. When Indig-James Cullingham and Bruce Hodgins.
John Money
John Money, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Victoria, died on 26 July 2019 at the age of eighty. John was “a historian’s historian” in all the best senses of that overused phrase. His work constantly challenged us to stretch the bounds of engrained analytical categories and discursive conventions. He was also a generous and richly allusive reviewer of the work of others.
John was born in February 1939 in Coventry. His Cambridge PhD was supervised by J.H. Plumb, a legendary historian of eigh-teenth-century England whose doctoral students invariably went on to stellar careers. Equally important in shaping John’s for-midable mind, however, was one of the most remarkable married couples in English academe. G.R. Elton, another famous star in the
Cambridge firmament, had been John’s undergraduate tutor at Clare College and remained a powerful force in his doctoral studies, instilling in him a lasting appreciation for the intri-cacies of Tudor history. John was also greatly inspired by the work of Sheila Lambert (Lady Elton), who single-handedly revolutionized the study of parliament and legislation in eigh-teenth-century England. In 1967, the same year that he defended his thesis, John began his lifelong career in Victoria.
John’s work on Birmingham established him as one of the pio-neers of urban and regional history in eighteenth-century England, a field hitherto dominated by the high politics of the court and parliament in London. His first article, published in The Historical Journal in 1971, has been recognized as one of the fifty most influential articles published during the first half-cen-tury of that distinguished journal. That same year, John also produced the very first article published in Midland History, one of three English regional history journals which have now become major forces in the area. The book which emerged from all of this, Experience and Identity: Birmingham and the West Midlands, 1760-1800 (Manchester/McGill-Queen’s UP, 1977), remains a foundational study of the culture, politics and regional influence of what would ultimately become England’s “second city”. At first blush, the adjective “provincial” evokes a sense of the backward and bucolic. In John’s work, provincial England came into its own as a world of vital cultural centres to rival the metropole in sophistication and long-term influence.
Ever attuned to shifting historiographic currents, in the 1980s John began to explore the detail and nuance of two particularly famous aspects of Birmingham culture: one (science) largely a force for modernity and change, the other (religion) far more
mixed in its substance and implications. John never tired of exploring these complexities, both in articles of formidable sub-stance and in long conversations with colleagues and students. Many of the deep paradoxes of the age that so fascinated John were embodied in the life of John Cannon (1684-1743), excise officer, schoolmaster and tireless bibliophile, to whom much of the remainder of John’s career was devoted. John’s two-volume edition of Cannon’s richly detailed diaries, The Chronicles of John Cannon (Oxford UP/British Academy, 2010), is a monumental scholarly achievement.
Somehow John also found the time and energy to be a devoted servant to other communities. At the University of Victoria, he was Chair of the Department of History (1975-9), then Acting Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (1980-1) during an age when the deanship was rotated amongst what are now three wholly separate faculties. His two decades as a member of the University Senate, including four years as its elected Vice-Chair during the mid-1990s, is a record almost unmatched and unlikely to be surpassed. As with the scholar, so with the administrator. John’s contributions to discussion were the stuff of legend: com-plex, wide-ranging, yet always perfectly parsed. Few scribes were able fully to capture their breadth and depth. Fortunately, John could always be relied upon to correct the record for posterity. Beyond the university, John was a tireless patron of Victoria’s music community, as well as a devoted husband, father and grandfather. Long into retirement, he continued bicycling the five kilometres to campus and sharing his wisdom and enthu-siasms with colleagues and students. John continued to be not only an active scholar but a generous mentor and engaged mem-ber of the department. His passing is an irreparable loss: his memory will be cherished.
Desmond Morton (1937-2019), OC, CD, FRSC
The Canadian historical community has lost one of its iconic figures, a scholar whose research and writing has changed the cannon and reading of Canadian history; an intellectual trajec-tory Desmond Morton recounted in his autobiographical article “Living with the First World War 1914-1919: History as Personal Experience”, Histoire Sociale/ Social History, Volume XLVII, Numero/Number 94, Juin/June, 2014.
Born in Alberta, Desmond Morton was educated in various schools in Canada and abroad. A graduate of the Royal Military College/ Collège militaire royal, and a Rhodes Scholar (Oxford), Des received his M.A. from Oxford and his Ph.D. from the University of London’s School of Economics and Political Science under the supervision of Kenneth Bourne. After service with the Canadian forces (1954-1964) Des worked as assistant secretary for the Ontario New Democratic Party (1964-66) and upon the com-petition of his doctoral thesis in 1968 taught at the University of Ottawa (1969-70), the University of Toronto’s Mississauga’s Campus, Erindale College (1970-1994) and McGill University (1994-2019).
A prolific scholar, Des authored some 40 forty books, including prize winning titles, as well as countless articles; research and writing that has changed the nature and teaching of our history. An engaged scholar, Des was a popular speaker, columnist, com-mentator, counsellor and teacher; above all, a public educator who saw education as an instrument of social change. He wrote in accessible language, for scholars, schools and the informed public. And, while many of his books were published by Uni-versity Presses, others were deliberately published in smaller, commercial presses; determined as he was to speak to a wider audience. He commented on public affairs and advised politi-cal leaders; provincial and federal New Democratic leaders, but others, as well who sought his advice, such as Brian Mulroney. An organized, pragmatic social activist who led by example and ever ready to do his part, Des was an obvious leader. Soon after he arrived at Erindale College, Des became Associate Dean, then Vice Principal (1976-86) and Principal (1986-94). Meanwhile he served as President of the Canadian Historical Society/ Société historique du Canada (1978-79). In 1994 Des came to McGill to direct the recently founded McGill Institute for the Study of Canada and where he left his indelible mark upon its character: a social and intellectual space of inter-disciplinary exchange, of teaching, learning, scholarship and public advocacy, national
and international outreach. Perhaps nothing captured Des’s social and intellectual engagement more than the Institute’s hallmark annual conference on important contemporary issues, designed to bring together voices from all groups of society, con-fident that through knowledge and dialogue one might build a better world. For Des knowledge was important; so were society, institutions and service.
Des enjoyed teaching and was a popular, imaginative instructor who spent time with students, answering their questions, dis-cussing their interests, advising and supervising their research. His lectures challenged received wisdom and were full of the unexpected, amusing stories and often great fun. I remember meeting him and Professor Mary MacKinnon, his co-lecturer in a Canadian studies course, on their way to class, who persuaded me to postpone my lunch and join their lecture on Canadian national symbols and help them serenade the class with a vigor-ous rendition of “The Maple Leaf Forever”, all three verses! Most of the students had never heard of the patriotic song, nor had imagined their elderly professors’ musical talent, or what they lacked for talent made up by their enthusiasm. The students’ look of concern, disbelieve, terror and amusement had to be seen to be believed. But they were alert for the rest of the class! For all of Des’s remarkable accomplishments, what I found most striking was his broad, inclusive social commitment, compas-sion and uncompromising personal and academic integrity. Although Des was no philistine, he never touched alcohol. When he was a child he had been persuaded to ‘take the pledge’. He had pledged his word and his word was important; and that was Des. Although Des was sceptical of dogma, I believe he would have had no difficulty subscribed to F.R. Scott’s
“Creed”:
The world is my country The human race is my race The spirit of man is my God The future of man is my heaven.
To Gael, his wife, and David and Mary, his children, the CHA/ SHC extends its deepest sympathy.
John Herd Thompson
John Herd Thompson, scholar, teacher, jazz musician and good friend to many, passed away in July 2019. Born in 1946, educated at the universities of Winnipeg (1968), Manitoba (M.A. 1969) and Queen’s (PhD 1975), he was part of the post-war generation of scholars teaching Canadian history in its own right. Prior to his appointment at McGill in 1971 Canadian history had been taught there, if at all, as part of the British and French colonial experi-ence. In a career that spanned more than forty years, he was a major figure in promoting research and teaching of Canadian studies in Canada and the United States. He spent eighteen years at McGill, a number of them as director of Cana-dian Studies, before going to Duke, where he also served as director of Canadian and then North American Studies, including a term as Chair of the History Department.
John defined himself as an historian of North America, with a focus on Western history, rural history and the trans-national history of Canada and the United States, with a later interest in Mexico. Although he wrote more broadly on Canadian histori-cal issues, his main interest and his passion (other than baseball, to which we will return) was the Canadian West. His first book, which grew from his dissertation at Queen’s, was Harvests of War: The Prairie West 1914-1918 (1978), which won the Cana-dian Historical Association regional history prize. He followed Harvests of War with a broader study of the region, Forging the Prairie West (1998). In the intervening years he undertook a study of the experience of Canadian Ukrainians during World War I with Francis Swyripa (Loyalities in Conflict, 1983). With labour historian Allen Seager they wrote Canada 1922-1939: Decades of Discord (1985), a volume in the Canadian Centenary Series which was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction the following year. He later built on his study of Ukrainians in World War I with a more general study of Ethnic Minorities During Two World Wars (1991). In the late 1980s he turned his attention to the bilateral relationship with the United States, publishing with his McGill colleague Stephen Randall the first of four editions of Canada and the United States: Ambivalent Allies (1994-2008) in the University of Georgia Press America and the Americas series under the editorship of Lester Lang-ley. In 2005 he crossed from prairies to Pacific coast, publishing with Patricia Roy, British Columbia, Land of Promise. His work reflected his interest in borderlands history and regional history, especially as it related to the American and Canadian West. That orientation was evident in work on which he was engaged late in his career, a volume on “The North American Great Plains in International, Transnational and Cross-National Perspective,
1860-1970.” His articles and book chapters were republished frequently in other venues, one of the many indications of the quality of his work. John was a gracious, collegial and effective collaborator on many research projects. Collaborators included, among others: Allen Seager, Patricia Roy, Francis Swyripa, Mark Richard, Ian MacPherson, Robert Ankli, Dan Helsberg.
During his years at Duke his passion for baseball assumed increasingly serious academic proportions. Although he never convinced me that baseball was Canada’s national game before hockey, he showed remarkable knowledge of the evolution of the game in Canada and the United States and its expansion to Latin America, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. At Duke he developed and taught a course on Baseball in Global Perspective. That same interest was embodied in his research on Enos Slaugh-ter, a North Carolinian who played for four major league teams between 1938-1959. His intention was not to write a biography of Slaughter but rather to use his life and career as a window into class, race, gender, region and celebrity.
John’s scholarship reflected thorough research, insightful anal-ysis, a highly engaging writing style, peppered with wit and humour. His courses were rigorous academically but always delivered with a sense of fun. Students in his introductory Cana-dian survey at McGill will still remember John in a red wig impersonating D’Arcy McGee. History students at Duke will remember him playing his saxophone to ring in the graduating class of the year. Many more Duke students may remember him as the colour commentator for Duke baseball games. He was not only an outstanding undergraduate instructor, but an effec-tive and dedicated graduate supervisor. More than thirty MA students and some thirty doctoral candidates had completed degrees under his direction by the time he retired in 2012 as Professor Emeritus from Duke. Seeing students to completion he viewed as only the beginning of the process. He was dedicated to helping them find rewarding academic positions in the highly competitive academic market. Their quality and his lobbying aided many of them to gain academic positions across Canada and the United States.
John contributed in many ways to his profession other than through his scholarship. He served on the executive of the Cana-dian Historical Association (1992-95); he was especially active with the American Association of Canadian Studies, serving on the executive council from 1997 to 2001. In his final year, though his passion for his academic interests remained, he was enjoying life, playing his sax and clarinet, and learning the flute, in months split between Vancouver and Puerto Vallarta. He will be sorely missed by his many colleagues and friends in the profession, and on behalf of the profession I extend condolences to his family. Stephen J. Randall FRSC
